2012 Issue

25 How do you insure that you can identify and hire a hard working, dedicated and loyal employee during a 45 minute interview? Should you ask a secret surprise interview question? W HAT ABOUT A rigorous interview process over an extended period of time? Naw, it’s really not that dif- ficult. You just have to understand a couple of aspects of basic human nature. You just have to understand the difference between warriors and scientists. There are two basic types of people in the world: warrior-types and scientist-types. You may assume that all engineers all naturally fall into the scientist category. Nope! There is a difference you know, between warriors and scientists. What’s the difference? It goes something like this: a scientist tends to be on the less adventurous side whereas the warrior takes more chances. A scientist tends to control his surroundings while a warrior tends to just live with what comes his way. If youwere to hear a scientist relate a life experience, it might go something like, “I received a paper cut when I...” or “While I was takingmy pills today...”. A warrior sounds completely different. He says stuff more along the lines of, “I broke my leg while...” or “I got this scar from...”. Which type is better? Neither. The two are just different. A scientist may employ higher reason- ing skills, whereas the warrior tends to get the girls. Society benefits by having both distinct personality traits in the ranks. Consider the term “It’s not rocket science”. This term implies that there are some tasks that even warriors can “figure out” while other tasks, in fact, require an actual rocket scientist. Without scientists, perhaps we would still be sleeping in tents but without warriors we might have been conquered by a neighboring non-peaceful country. Where’s the problem you ask? Here’s the rub: As evidenced by all the modern conveniences we enjoy, we live in a scientist-dominated society. Warriors seem to have very really have little place here. A good fight which would heart- ily be enjoyed by a warrior usually happens only far away. Warriors tend to get into trouble around these parts when they look for a little en- tertainment. By the way, they don’tmean any harm, they are just bored. Naturally, scientists are annoyed by war- riors; they’re hard to control. They also take all the girls so biological conflicts arise. Conversely warriors don’t have any beef with scientists because 1) they offer no threat, 2) their inventions are really cool and 3) they don’t take any of the girls. What does this have to do with hiring employees you ask? Good question. Perhaps we could use a little more dose of warrior types in the engineering community. We are so dominated by the modern science culture and we forget the grunt and die trying part of the business. For example, when we have an engineering decision to bemade, where dowe turn? We reference a code. We study an engineering handbook, or we rely on some other established standard. We don’t even give a second thought to dreaming something up something new or just plain figur- ing out the problem for ourselves. That’s just boring. Don’t you remember when you were in school and you dreamed of inventing really cool things? Have you done it yet? Maybe, you have forgotten your inner warrior. You recall the one inside you. The one that when you were younger threw rocks at passing cars, or ate a worm on a double dare. History is replete with warrior engineers. Con- sider the Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur. While these names are not exactly what you might expect for the typical warrior types but the two were in fact warriors. Perhaps they just got bored or maybe they were just tired of fighting with each other. Warriors vs. Scientists Ben Davis, P.E. Vice President, COO, Van Boerum & Frank Associates, Inc. WARRIORS VS. SCIENTISTS | continued on page 26